US EditionNASA Turns Off Voyager 1 Instrument to Prolong Iconic Probe's Life
Engineers shut down the Low-energy Charged Particles experiment as Voyager 1’s power supply fades, leaving only three instruments operating on both probes.
- On April 17, NASA engineers shut down the Low-Energy Charged Particles experiment aboard Voyager to preserve the aging spacecraft's dwindling nuclear power supply.
- Voyager loses about 4 watts of power annually, forcing engineers to deactivate unnecessary systems to keep the 47-year-old probe operating in interstellar space.
- Cruising over 15 billion miles from Earth, the spacecraft now operates with only two of its original 10 science instruments, monitoring plasma waves and magnetic fields.
- Kareem Badaruddin, Voyager mission manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said this shutdown provides about a year of stability while engineers finalize "The Big Bang" plan to replace powered devices.
- NASA expects both Voyagers to continue operating through the end of this decade, following the LECP experiment shutdown on the twin probe in March 2025.
16 Articles
16 Articles
Low on Power, Voyager 1 Drops Instrument
NASA just turned off another instrument on humanity's farthest-flung machine. Engineers have powered down Voyager 1's Low-Energy Charged Particles (LECP) experiment, which measures ions, electrons, and cosmic rays, to stretch the 47-year-old spacecraft's dwindling power supply and keep it operating in interstellar space for as long as possible, per Space....
NASA shuts off Voyager 1 probe
Voyager 1, the most distant man-made object from Earth, shut down one of its three remaining instruments as NASA worked to extend its near-half-century mission. The Voyager probes launched in 1977 toward the solar system’s outer planets, a planned five-year job. But they have continued to function in the decades since, slowly cutting down capabilities as their nuclear batteries dwindle. They are now both in interstellar space. Voyager 1, the mos…
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